Easter Reflections

So today was Easter. It is such a beautiful time of year. It warm and sunshiney and lovely outside. The trees are in blossom, with lots of flowers, and most things smell wonderful. I love springtime. Everything is coming back to life, bursting forth new shoots and buds, even my allergies, unfortunately. As of writing this post, I've sneezed approximately 10 times, despite haven taken 2 benadryl at least half an hour ago. Okay, make that 12.

We celebrated Easter by having a dinner with a bunch of people from our ward. It was lovely, despite things not working out quite as planned, just fyi, half and half is NOT a good replacement for heavy whipping cream. 

Us and our beautiful food! 

We made ham, and I made potato salad for the first time all by myself. It.. was an adventure. 

Our beautiful eggs that we dyed. The glitter one is mine :) 

But despite all the food, the eggs, the candy, the fun and the friends, that really isn't the most important part about Easter. Easter is a time where we can reflect on the wonderful and amazing gift of the atonement that Jesus Christ made for us. While Christmas is awesome, and you get to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, I feel that Easter is even more important, in that we remember that he suffered and died for us, in order that we might be saved, and live with our families, and our Father in Heaven again. Because of the atonement, I have the ability to repent, to become a better person, and to be comforted in times of need. I know that Jesus Christ has suffered and gone through every pain I've ever felt. When I sin, he's felt that pain, and that guilt, and the sorrow. He knows my struggles when I've gone through a hard week at school, when I've failed a test, when my friend says something unkind, or when a boy doesn't like me. Even if no one else knows how I'm feeling, he does, and he can comfort me, and help me to get through it. When life gets so hard, and all I want to do is give up, He is there for me.
One of my favorite quotes on the atonement, (really applying to women) is by Sister Okazaki. I heard it in Relief Society this year, and it quickly became one of my favorites. It's kinda long, but it's great.

"We talk in great generalities about the sins of all humankind, about the suffering of the entire human family. But we don’t experience pain in generalities. We experience it individually.
That means he knows what it felt like when your mother died of cancer- how it was for your mother, how it still is for you. He knows what it felt like to lose the student body election. He knows that moment when the brakes locked and the car started to skid. He experienced the slave ship sailing from Ghana toward Virginia. He experienced the gas chambers at Dachau. He experienced napalm in Vietnam. He knows about drug addiction and alcoholism.
Let me go further. There is nothing you have experienced as a woman that he does not know and recognize.
On a profound level, he understands the hunger to hold your baby that sustains you through pregnancy.

He understands both the physical pain of giving birth and the immense joy. He knows about PMS and cramps and menopause. He understands about rape and infertility and abortion.
He understands your mother-pain when your five-year-old leaves for kindergarten, when a bully picks on your fifth-grader, when your daughter calls to say that the new baby has Down’s Syndrome. He knows your mother-rage when a trusted babysitter sexually abuses your two-year-old, when someone gives your thirteen-year-old drugs, when someone seduces your seventeen-year-old. He knows the pain you live with when you come home to a quiet apartment where the only visitors are children, when you hear that your former husband and his new wife were sealed in the temple last week, when your fiftieth wedding anniversary rolls around and your husband has been dead for two years.
He knows all that.
He’s been there.

He’s been lower than all that.

He’s not waiting for us to be perfect. Perfect people don’t need a Savior. He came to save his people in their imperfections. He is the Lord of the living, and the living make mistakes. He’s not embarrassed by us, angry at us , or shocked. He wants us in our brokenness, in our unhappiness, in our guilt and our grief.

You know that people who live above a certain latitude experience very long winter nights and can become depressed and even suicidal, because something in our bodies requires whole spectrum light for a certain number of hours a day.

Our spiritual requirement for light is just as desperate and as deep as our physical need for light. Jesus is the light of the world. We know that this world is a dark place sometimes, but we need not walk in darkness. The people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, and the people who walk in darkness can have a bright companion. We need him, and He is ready to come to us, if we’ll open the door and let him. "

I love this quote. It is such a beautiful way to describe the atonement, and our need for it. It also reminds me of one of my favorite scriptures from the Book of Mormon, Alma 7:11-12 "And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities." That scripture is a great source of comfort to me, especially when I'm struggling and having a hard time. I read this, and it gives me strength that my Elder Brother is watching out for me, and he's not going to make me do it alone, if i can't, and if I ask for help. 

My uncle passed away two weeks ago, and the second verse, verse 12, is a testament to me, that even though he's not with us on this earth right now, we will see him again, and he's up there watching down on us. I know that through the plan of Salvation, we can be reunited with our loved ones after we die. 

We watched a video today in church with one of my favorite songs, "Come thou Fount" to some of my favorite pictures of the Savior, from the book Reflections of Christ. It's a beautiful video, and I encourage watching it.